The "Best" RPG Ever-52

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"Aha...here we are," said Rayna. They went around another couple of trees to stand before a very artificial-looking building. It was one story tall, made of shiny, sheer black material of some kind, in the precise shape of a rectangular prism jutting up out of the ground. It only went a short ways out to the left and right, but the dense foliage nearby made it hard to tell how far back it extended.

"This is 'ruins'?" said Mira, walking a little closer. There was a doorway—open, no door—right in the middle. "It looks like a modern art sculpture."

"It's certainly distinct from the castle Lynn and I woke up in." The fox-girl came closer too, and carefully put a hand on the wall. "...Or anything else we've seen in this world so far." There were vines running up and down much of the building, but the wall itself felt smooth and cool, like polished stone. "Any ideas there?" she asked Nora.

The elf walked up to the building, staring intently at it. "Th-the walls look like..heavily concentrated earth. I-it isn't naturally occuring the way materials used for the b-buildings in town are. More like somebody 'purified' st-stone...if that m-makes any sense."

"So...some kinda super-magic-based construction. I guess it would have to be something special to be so intact after...however long."

"Assuming it really is old," said Mira. "Anyway, standing around out here won't get us anywhere." She pointed upward, and a ball of light appeared from her index finger; then she started into the doorway, the light swirling and bouncing around in front of her. "Hey, stairs."

The others followed her; indeed, the doorway led to a small landing followed immediately by wide stairs going down. The walls inside were the same as those outside, but with considerably less plant life on them. There were some bugs buzzing or skittering around here and there, which only Rayna seemed bothered by. Finally, the stairs ended and the walls opened out to a tall, mostly-underground chamber, empty apart from the bugs.

Rayna put her hands on her hips, looking up and around. "Hmn. If the whole place is like this, my map's gonna be pret-ty boring."

"Actually, it looks kinda like this is the whole place," said Mira, swinging her light around. "No more doors or anything. But..."
"Yeah, it should be way bigger, based on what we saw outside."
"Um.." Nora walked up to the spot opposite the stairs. "T-there's cracks here," she said. "I-in the wall. Like, uh.." She pushed at it, and with a small grunt from her that part of the wall moved in slightly.

"Lemme help ya there..." The witch came closer and gave the wall a harder shove, making a door swing out into another room beyond. The hinge clicked repeatedly as the door moved, but it stayed open. "Phew. We totally shoulda had Zack along for this one."

"Aww, you're plenty strong," said Rayna. "Anyway.." She waved past the doorway.

"Right." Mira moved the light into the next room. This one was just as tall, but smaller otherwise. Come to think of it, the door was rather huge itself, maybe eight or nine feet up with enough width to still have the proportions of a normal door. There was a table on the wall opposite their entry, seemingly carved out of whatever material the wall was, and the wall past the table had some symbols engraved in it.

"Hmmn..." Mira walked up and climbed onto the table, running a finger across the symbols. "These seem kinda familiar, but I can't exactly place them. Some kind of magic runes, I'm sure..."

"Hey, shh!" Rayna whispered suddenly. The others turned to face her; her eyes were closed and her ears turning this way and that. After a moment, she opened her eyes again. "I heard metal clanking...like I did back at the castle. Maybe the same kind of 'security guard' armor thing as you met there?"

"I really hope not. Zack couldn't even touch that thing," Mira said quietly.

"I'll keep us invisible, just in case," the fox-girl nodded. "Perhaps it has weak points you just couldn't see while running away from it in a panic."
"Yeah, maybe...anyway..." The witch turned her attention back to the runes.

Nora was looking around at the rest of the room. Just like the previous one, it appeared to be a dead end, but it also had cracks indicating the same kind of closed doors, one to the left and one to the right.

"Oh! Yeah...I'm not sure where I remember this from, but..I should be able to activate these," said the witch.

Rayna asked, "Are they..safe? Or some kind of trap?"
"Not sure. Well—the first one just makes light. Maybe all over the building. But the others turn things on or off and I dunno exactly what."
"Let's, try the light at least then?"
"'Kay.."

Mira chanted something quietly, and the rune she'd indicated as the 'first' one glowed faintly with a purplish color, and then the ceilings of both rooms they'd come to so far began to glow. The light was a pale blue, dim but enough to see the way around. "Hmn...it feels like it's lost most of its power," she commented. "...How do I know that?"

"Well, at least we can see without your light-orb thing," said Rayna.

The witch looked around the room again, and finally noticed that Nora was closely examining the hinge of the door they'd opened into this room. "What've you got there?" she said.

"Um..i-it almost looks..mechanical? B-but not exactly. Th-there's something, like a channel through the wall going from it." She turned around slowly, her eyes following something neither of the others could see, and eventually settling on one of the runes next to Mira. "I...th-think the doors have some sort of magic to open them automatically," she said.

"..Which would explain what these runes are supposed to turn on and off!" she said excitedly, turning back toward them.
"Uh, we're not totally sure any of those isn't a trap, though," Rayna pointed out.

"We'll be careful, then. Go one at a time. You listen for any extra gears turning or whatever."

"Oookay..." She tried to make it clear this still seemed like a bad idea by the tone of her voice.

---

Zack found himself standing before a cave with Katherine once again. Well, there were a couple of other people involved this time. Lynn started to say something, and he quickly waved to cut her off. Quiet. They're right inside.

Oh, yeah...I keep forgetting we can talk this way. I was gonna whisper, though.

...Anyway, how many do you think we're dealing with? When we ran into Rast there were just two, and that was enough to be trouble.

We'll be fine..the four of us must've taken down like a dozen dire wolves in that guy's pack, Katherine responded, indicating the white-furred beast. Zack took a second to look at him, thinking back to that time, and it occurred to him that he'd sported a lot of visible scars back then...which were seemingly mostly gone now. Maybe they'd just been shallow wounds from previous fights with the pack or its opponents, or fur had grown over them...but even thinking that, surely some of it should still be visible?

He kept it mostly to himself for the moment. Nora and Mika were doing a lot of crowd control..and he cut off the fight early to 'challenge' me. But I think we'll be fine if we use this entrance as a choke point. Glancing at the wolf: Two of us can hold it, Kath get anything that dodges us to come after her instead of you...as long as you can shoot around us.

I can handle that. But still—any clue how many?

I can feel at least ten just in there, the catgirl thought back after a moment's reading. There are probably more deeper in that'll get alerted once we start.

Zack gave a vague signal to the wolf and stepped up to the mouth of the cave; he seemed to understand, taking up a position next to the alpha. So, what's our opening move? Lynn thought, moving uphill a bit to where she had a clear shot. You want fire? Lightning? Ice fragments?

We want to push them out here. so get some fire in as deep as possible, Katherine suggested. I can give it an extra push and maybe direct it to land in one of them. She also sent over a spatial sensation of about where the closest few of the wildcats were, while the archer drew her bow back and carefully aimed.

A streak of fire flew by next to Zack, lighting up the cave on its way in; in a moment, there was a roar of pain from one of the cats inside. It didn't take long for them to start running out to the mouth of the cave after that. The knight swung his sword right through the throat of the first one to come to him; the second dodged, jumped at him, and got bashed by the flat of the blade, thrown to the cave wall, in response. The wolf pounced on the first cat to arrive, tearing its throat out with terrifying precision and tossing it aside like an unwanted doll before going to do the same to the next.

A fifth cat arrived, yowling in rage; an arrow went into its throat and electricity sparked through its body, stunning it long enough for Zack to quickly stab it with his short sword. Then the one he'd thrown a moment ago came back; he kicked it in the side, flipping it partway onto its back, and followed up with a slash to its exposed underside, finishing it off. The wolf's second victim fared no better than the first, but the third cat to come to it was more ready, stopping a small distance away and poising itself to pounce at him. The wolf growled, but sat and waited patiently, and when it did attack he moved just aside of its claws gracefully, responding with his own claws straight to its stomach, knocking it to one side. Katherine drove a knife into its skull before it could stand back up.

Another one came for Zack, taking a running jump and forcing him to sidestep. It caught a rock attached to one of Lynn's arrows square in the face, knocking it back into his range to quickly stab the short blade through where he was pretty sure the heart was—anyway, it quit moving once he did that. The next cat pounced at him while he was trying to pull the weapon out again, but the wolf intercepted it, tackling it to one side into a brief roll before landing on top and tearing that one's throat out, too. This left the wolf's side open long enough for one cat to run out; Katherine pulled it in her direction and started chopping it up with her knives, easily dancing around its attempts to strike or pounce at her.

The wolf stood back up, and Zack crossed to the side it had been covering until now. Then the tenth cat arrived, moved in and tried its claws on the knight but only hit armor. He grabbed one of its paws and threw it over on its back before stabbing it in the same way as before. An eleventh one tried to run around the wolf; he stuck out a paw and tripped it, and it skidded clumsily across the ground briefly before having the giant white wolf land on top of it, crushing it briefly before digging his claws into its head and pulling its head back until it snapped. Katherine finished off her opponent, getting a knife into its mouth and jabbing it up at the brain, and then the last of them arrived; an arrow coated in ice landed just in front of it, the ice shattered into pointed shards that hit its muzzle and throat. It yowled, pawing at its face in pain until Zack stabbed it through the back with his main sword, putting it out of its misery.

Lynn nocked another arrow, and everyone remained tense for a moment, Zack and the wolf resuming their post at the cave mouth. Everyone except the human could hear distant cries of the surviving cats echoing faintly in the cave as they fled out some other exit, and after a moment Katherine moved to a more relaxed stance. I think that's it, she thought to the others.

Lynn nodded, putting away her bow and returning the arrow to the quiver before walking up a little closer, looking around. Looks like we got twelve of them.Probably enough to count as 'thinning them out', right?

Yeah. Zack moved closer to the wolf, and said aloud: "Good work." In response to the praise, it gave a small 'hmph' kind of growl, sat on its haunches and looked up at him, wagging its tail slightly.

No kidding. He does as much work as any of us, though Lynn. Once the others are well, we oughta split into three parties for small jobs, with that guy as one of our DPS or tanks.

Sooo, should we do something with all the bodies? she thought, looking around at them. Somehow I feel like it'd be a waste to just leave them here...

We could sell them to a tanner or something, I guess...I know I don't want any cat corpses anywhere near our house, said Zack. He knelt over one of the bodies and tried picking it up in his hands. "Hmn. Never mind, I don't think this counts as an 'item'," he reported.

"Wait, didn't we find gold on that wolf we killed, way earlier?" said Katherine. "Or rather.."

"It disappeared, and a bag of gold appeared in its place," said Zack, nodding.

"Really? We never had anything like that happen," said Lynn.
"Neither did we, since then. The goblins stayed corpses, and just about everything else..."

"I think we should consult an expert," Katherine suggested. "If we report that as something strange we encountered on our way into town, say..."

"Yeah, we didn't think it was weird at the time because 'this was a game', but it does seem weird now," said Zack. "...Hmn?" Looking around, he noticed that the wolf was standing at attention again, sniffing the air and clearly agitated about something.

---

Mira tried activating the rune that Nora said was connected to the door on the right. It glowed faintly, and then the door swung itself open. "See? No problem," she said, hopping down off of the table. "I guess we should start checking out what's that way, and then come back and open the other door?"

"Hey!" Rayna whispered suddenly, grabbing the witch's wrist for a second. Then she breathed, "Quiet..."

Nora took a step away from the newly-opened door; they both gave Rayna a questioning look for a second or two. Then they could hear it: Clank-clank-clank-clank...metal boots running toward them. The fox-girl finally released Mira's hand, and she made a gesture suggesting a return to the larger chamber, which they did, watching the smaller room with the glyphs from there.

Before long, Rayna's suspicions were confirmed. Something resembling a suit of armor with glowing red eyes ran into the glyph room, its helmet-head gazing around. The armor itself was cracked and dented, completely gone in places; it looked through some gaps in the torso and legs to be completely hollow. After a long, tense moment, it seemed satisfied that there was nothing there, and turned around, walking back out the door it came from.

They waited until it was out of earshot—well, for the two of them without fox ears at least—and then breathed a small, collective sigh of relief. "Seems like it's fooled easy enough by my illusions," said Rayna. "I dunno what I'd do if those eyes had truesight or something."

"Well, the bad news is that we probably do need to eventually destroy it," said Mira. "It definitely won't be safe for researches to come in here with that thing patrolling around."

"Hmn. You think the three of us can do that, or do we need backup?" said the illusionist.
"Well, honestly all we tried last time was Zack briefly duelling it and Kath mostly drawing its attention to run away. It was a really good sword-fighter, fast and stupid strong. But I think we might stand a chance with some explosions, maybe my scythe can do some damage if your illusions help me get strikes past its defenses. And—could you move that 'concentrated earth' around to hit it with?" she asked Nora.

"Um...maybe?" She tried pulling on some of the wall nearby. "Rrgh..no good. I-it's all tied together, like the whole building is one big strand of stone," she reported. "I-if we could find something made the same way and smaller, I-I think I could move it, and it p-p-probably would be solid enough to hurt the armor, though."

"Alright. Let's go looking for something like that, then," said Mira, starting back into the glyph room. "After all, there's no hurry to fight that guy. We should find any weapons this place provides, and the battleground that gives us the most advantage. Hey, if we do find any traps we could even use those to our advantage, right?"
"Good thinking," said Rayna, following. "We just need to avoid being in the same room as it. Don't want it bumping into something 'invisible' and deciding to slice it in half rather than figure out what's going on."

---

"Hey, what's wrong?" Zack came a little closer to the wolf.

Katherine patched the wolf through so the others could understand him. Skywater is near, he said. Big, with loud falling-fire. His head turned to face the knight. Alpha, we should take shelter here until it passes.

"A rainstorm, huh?" said Lynn. "Well, I'm not afraid of a little water."

"I'd say thunderstorm, more like," the catgirl responded. "And considering one of us is wearing probably really conductive plate mail..."

Zack was still watching the wolf looking up at him, having noticed something in its eyes he had never seen there before. It finally occurred to him what it was: Fear. He understood after watching for a moment what was going on: The wolf was terrified of...probably not rain, but particularly lightning, and the accompanying thunder. "Any idea how long it will last?" he asked, although he wasn't really sure an animal could predict the weather that accurately.

Not long. Passing quickly; coming quickly, the wolf reported, a slight pleading tone bleeding into its mental voice. Zack looked at the others, having a short wordless conference and quickly coming to an agreement with them, and then said, "Alright. We can probably just wait it out then. Safer for me, at least." He started inside, and they followed.

A little deeper in, Katherine took out her fire-enchanted knife and activated it, making a small glowing light for them to see by. The cave had a good several yards where the three of them could all stand upright, and they got far enough in to stay dry before turning around to look out. Things were growing dark outside rather quickly, and the animal-girls could hear thunder in the distance now. They carefully took a seat; the wolf curled up nearly into a ball next to Zack. Then there was a deafening, tearing peal of thunder from just outside the cave, making all of them jump slightly from the nearness and suddenness of it.

The wolf had his eyes closed, and was visibly shivering even though it wasn't cold at all. It gave a barely-suppressed whimper at the next peal of thunder from a bit farther off. Zack cautiously put a hand on its back, and the animal visibly calmed a bit. Well, our team pet just keeps getting more interesting, Katherine thought between the humanoids. I admit I wouldn't have liked to be caught in that either, but I could've have managed...

How was he ever an alpha of a huge pack with such a crippling fear of storms? Lynn wondered.

All he had to do was order the pack into shelter when he smelled, and then put on a brave face for a while, Zack suggested, slowly moving his hand along the wolf's fur. It seemed to him to be softer than it should for a wild animal, and he couldn't feel any trace of those scars; something odd was definitely going on with this wolf. He barked softly in response, which Zack felt certain was a pleased or relieved sound, so he continued to gently stroke the wolf's fur for as long as the storm persisted.